I remember the Wankel hype. It just seemed so elegantly simple, but the details is where that engine lets us down.
Funny you say that. I had the Wankel engine in mind as I wrote my comment. I wonder if this thing has an Achilles heel.
I have an RX8 with the new generation of rotary, the Renesis, and it appears to have all the strengths of the Wankel with none of the drawbacks. It's an incredibly strong powerplant for its diminiuitive size. Super-wide power band and only a handful of moving parts. Mileage could be better, but it's still not bad for a sports car.
The engine in this article looks interesting to me too. I love new motor technology.
There was nothing simple about the design of the Wankel engine. The rotor and chamber contour were very precise surfaces which require tighter tolerance control than a piston engine.
It's down fall was two fold. The apex seals required to separate the combustion zones were problematical due to the high surface running speeds of the tips of the rotor and the difficulty of getting any lubricant to them because combustion pressures alternated from one side to the other as the engine turned over. The second problem related to the surface geometry of the combustion space. For it's displacement any Wankel will have a greater surface area in it's combustion chamber then any equivalent piston engine. The larger surface area tends to quench the combustion process. The result of this is lower combustion flame temperatures with a corresponding increase in emissions of unburnt hydrocarbons. That also means that gasoline is going through the engine without burning which means mileage is less than optimal.
Versions of the engine have been used as rotary air compressors with good result, though as an engine it's more of a technical novelty.
Regards,
GtG
i’ve seen it, it works, we’ll see how good it is when and if they finally get it into mass production, they have proton on side to give them cars to test it with